Sudana Homestay- Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Address: Jalan Gautama/Goutama/Cootama, No. 11, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Website: none

I came across this homestay soon after arriving at the Bemo/Taxi station, near the centre of Ubud. It's located on the first street coming from that direction, and is in a narrow street constantly busy with cars and motorbikes. Plenty of other homestays can be found on the same street but Sudana's Homestay offered the cheapest rate with breakfast for a week so we went with this one. The homestay is family owned, with children who are as friendly as their parents and offer a friendly smile everytime passes them. Madi is the main contact and has a smile that can almost literally light up a lightbulb, and is friendly and welcoming. Breakfast is included with the accommodation, and has a menu of either:

- a tomato and egg jaffle
- a scrambled/boiled egg or omlette with two pieces of buttered toast
- a banana/pineapple pancake

The food also came with a small plate of papaya, pineapple and banana, as well as a choice of Bali coffee (very strong black coffee) or black tea.
We ordered the scrambled egg with toast for most of the week until we realised that the tomato and egg jaffle was much nicer. I also tried the banana pancake which was extremely oily but chewy and doughy which was the sort of pancake I personally like, but which most others probably don't. It was evident that Madi put a decent amount of effort into making her breakfasts, but a common factor were the black specks of dirt of something which came on the utensils, plates and cups. The coffee or tea would be accompanied with a small jar of sugar, but so would the noticeable ants that would be crawling around in the sugar. Seeing the semi-outdoor kitchen where the plates and cutlery would be washed and kept to dry explained all this, but still, it wasn't exactly nice to see with your food first thing in the morning.

There are separate buildings containing the rooms at the back of the main house where guests stay. Each room comes with its own little verandal/outside seating area where breakfast is served, and the rooms are fan cooled. Each has its own toilet without a cistern, so a bucket and hose is provided. All open windows were covered in nets to prevent mosquitoes from entering the room.
We originally negotiated a week's stay in their cheapest room which was the first one on the right hand side- (a discounted rate of Rp 70 000 per night, about A$9 per night) a double room with a cold shower however this was quickly regretted as the room dingy, with a definite depressed atmosphere about it. The bedside table was old, rusty and dirty and the toilet was a shocker. There wasn't a bucket as such provided to wash the toilet down, but a small heart shaped, pouring tool that was nowhere sufficiently large enough to contain enough water necessary to do the deed. Soon after having a shower, we discovered a huge cockroach on the floor which made the whole experience even worse. I refused to enter the bathroom after that which made it quite impossible to stay another night in that room, and after sharing our thoughts, we agreed to request an upgrade to another room.

We didn't mention anything of our reasons for making the change to Madi, but she let us know that one of the other rooms with a hot shower would become available later that day for us. What a difference Rp 20 000 can make. At a negotiated Rp 90 000 per night (A$11) for a remaining week's stay, the room was brighter, larger and airier. The toilet appeared cleaner, with a large bucket provided to take care of the absent cistern, and there was of course, the hot water (which actually stopped working halfway through the week until we let Madi know, and were told that it was due to the gas heating tank being broken but it was quickly fixed).
The room came with a shelf built into the wall, as well as a bedside table (sufficiently newer and cleaner than the previous one) and some hooks on the wall. I came to know the room quite well, as I became sick soon after our arrival in Ubud and had to spend pretty much the rest of the week holed up in bed. A cockroach was seen in the bathroom a few days into our stay which put a damper on things but overall, the room was a hundred steps up from the 'nightmare room' of our first night.

Overall, a nice, affordable homestay in a great location. Being the cheaper kind of homestay, it may show in things such as cleanliness (it seemed that the bedsheets were never washed/changed, and the bedsheets were not really bedsheets), but presided over by the friendly family, it'd be a good bet for one on a budget in Ubud.

Rating: 6.5/10